1. Field of the Invention.
The present invention relates to shopping by consumers generally and, more particularly, to a novel method and apparatus for computer-aided shopping which provides for greater efficiency both for the consumer and for the supplier of consumer goods.
2. Background Art.
The problems associated with consumer shopping are well known. To take the case of grocery shopping, for example, it is necessary for the consumer to make a written list, or memorize a list, of items which the consumer wishes to purchase during the consumer's next trip to the grocery store. The events which may prompt addition of an item to the list include finishing a container of the item, receiving a discount coupon for the item, and reading an advertisement for the item. When the consumer is shopping at the grocery store, it is necessary to refer to the list which, when written, may be difficult to follow, since the items may not be listed in the order in which they are stocked on the store shelves. If a specific item is not available, the consumer may have to spend some time deciding which substitute item is most nearly identical to the desired item. If the consumer has a coupon for an item, it is necessary for the comsumer to remember to present the coupon at the check-out counter.
Consumers who are confined to their homes have a special problem in that they must either telephone orders for goods to store or give a list to other persons to shop for them. The former case is relatively inefficient in that what may be a long list of items must be taken down by the store personnel. In the latter case, the lists given to the other persons may lack sufficient detail for the consumers to receive exactly the items they desire.
From the point of view of the grocery store, the problems of the consumer cause shopping to be somewhat inefficient and lead to unnecessary congestion in the store. Also, the fact that supplies of groceries on the shelves must be sufficiently large that a relatively large number of consumers can manually select the items without creating frequent outages means that more shelf space is necessary than would be the case if the bulk of the items could be furnished to the consumer without manual picking thereof by the consumer.
These, and numerous other problems, cause shopping to be less efficient than would be desired by either the shopper or the grocery store.
Accordingly, it is a principal object of the present invention to provide a method and means for aiding shopping which eliminate many of the problems associated with shopping by consumers.
It is another object of the invention to provide such method and means that help insure that consumers obtain the desired items for which they are shopping.
It is an additonal object of the invention to provide such method and means that allow remote shopping by consumers.
It is a further object of the invention to provide such method and means that allow automatic order picking.
Other objects of the present invention, as well as particular features and advantages thereof, will, in part, be apparent and will, in part, be obvious from the following description and the accompanying drawing figures.